B A H A WA L P U R : Fifteen fertiliser dealers were booked and nine of them were arrested while their shops were sealed for hoarding in the city as well as Uch Sharif by Assistant Commissioner Raja Muhammad Qasim Mehboob Januja on Monday.

According to an of ficial handout,, in the raids carried out in Ahmedpur East, 3,000 bags of fertilizers was seized from the godowns of five dealers, identified as Allah Bachaya, Ayyaz Munshi, Khawaia Moonis Elahi, Muhammad Arshad and Naeem Shehzad, who managed to escape. On the AC`s complaint, the City police registered cases against the fleeing dealers. Besides, another 10 dealers were booked for hoarding fertilisers and their shops were sealed by the raiding teams.

Price control magistrate Kamran Jabbar Bhatti claimed the stocks of fertilisers were being checked on a daily basis and nobody would be allowed to sell them in the black market.

According to another of ficial handout, AC Rana Shoaib during a raid atKhairpur Tamewali arrested a shopkeeperfor allegedly keeping hundreds of fertiliser bags illegally in his shop.

Meanwhile, Lodhran Deputy Commissioner Agha Zaheer Abbas Sherazi said price control magistrates imposed Rs276,000 fine on 100 shopkeepers, arrested 16 traders and registered cases against six profiteers in the district.

FIRE: A big blaze at a petrol agency destroyed two shops and hundreds of litres of petrol and diesel near Faroogabad Pul in tehsil Ahmedpur East.

According to Abid Rahim of Rescue 1122, the petrol agency caught fire at night, which devastated two shops and about 500 litre diesel and petrol. The cause of the fire could not be ascertained.

No loss of life was reported.

In anothernreincident at Jhok Jannan Chamb Mor on Chambkuliar Road in district Lodhran, a grocery shop was gutted along with 200 litres of petrol, which had caught fire while being transferred to a plastic tank.

The rescuers claimed that the tank filled with 5,000 litre diesel and several shops were saved from the fire.